Green Goo and You
by SilverMoonPhantom
Summary: Jazz is not having the greatest day. Dropping into an alternate universe wasn't new, per se, but she hadn't expected this sort of adventure.
1. Chapter 1

"Okay, so who the _fuck_ are you?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

Jazz gave the other redhead a nonplussed stare, folding her arms as the other girl circled her warily.

"Jasmine."

"Not Summer?"

She felt her brows furrow.

"No?"

"Well, that's good, then. 'Cause _I'm_ Summer and frankly I'm tired of punching myself in the face."

"O….kaay?"

Jazz shifted slightly, not sure what to make of that.

The other girl's (Summer's?) expression suddenly flipped to cheerful friendliness as she clasped her hands together. It was a little disconcerting to see the body language shift while her voice remained the same harsh grilling.

"So what brings you through a crazy green portal? Science? Interdimensional travel? Interstellar war? Trying to hunt a Federation traitor?"

"Ummmm, no. I'm just trying to find my brother." A beat. "That second one's pretty accurate, though."

Jazz took an alarmed step back as Summer suddenly stepped into her space, patting at her jacket pockets.

"Hey hey hey, personal space, much?"

"So where's your portal gun? You _do_ have a portal gun, _right?_ "

"Honestly? It's none of your business!"

Jazz shoved at the girl's shoulder when the other girl started aiming to check her chest, startled when her wrist was captured in a tight grip, the dark look appearing again.

"You're in my backyard, honey. It's plenty my business." A familiar shwooping noise caught both their attentions, a green flash beaming from the garage windows. They perked up for different reasons, and Summer started dragging her around to the front of the house.

"Grandpa Rick!" Jazz followed along without complaint, wondering if it really had been the girl's grandfather, or if the familiar shade of green was a ghost portal. A shrill beeping started as soon as they were in eyeshot, loud enough to startle several birds from a nearby tree.

"Grandpa Rick, I found a weird girl in our backyard - it looked like she came through one of your portals. Do you _know_ her?"

Bored blue eyes glanced up at the two of them, nimble fingers twisting a squarish device around in his hands. The beeping stopped, and he set it down.

"That's nice, sweetie."

"What do you mean, _that's nice sweetie_ , she came out of a _portal_." As Summer let go to gesture emphatically, Jazz started to edge away from the clearly irritated teen.

"Soooo…. I'm just going to… " She pointed back toward the road, turning on her heel and making all of two steps before her vision lit up with neon blue.

"Yeahhhh, I don't think so."

" _What the hell, Grandpa?!"_

"You said it yourself, Summer. She's a being from another dimension. Looks human, but my sensors are going fucking crazy. So. What are you. Shapeshifter? Mirage? Creepy robot with a skin fetish?"

Jazz tossed a bit of pocket fuzz at the force field, wrinkling her nose as it lit up into a tiny fireball.

"Human, thanks."

"Don't think so. Humans can't emit that much ectoradiation and live."

She huffed, sitting down and resting one elbow on her knee, chin in the palm of her hand. May as well get as far away from the shields as possible.

"Yeah, well, long-term low-dose exposure does some pretty crazy stuff to human resilience."

The old man squinted at her, taking a slow sip from a silver flask.

"What's your name?"

"Jazz."

"Short for Jasmine?"

She nodded, and he made an unconvinced noise. Summer had folded her arms, tapping a foot.

"She said she was looking for her brother."

"That true?"

Jazz nodded.

"Well, he should be easy enough to find, if he's anything like you. Freakin' beacon, let me tell you."

The two girls watched him wander back into the garage, and Jazz flicked another bit of fuzz at the shield to watch it burn.  
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." his voice echoed out. "The more you test it, the smaller it gets."

Jazz shoved her hands in her pockets and left them there.

"So, Jazz, was it? What Universe are you from?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"The human one? Am I not still on earth?"

The voice calling out from the garage was almost inaudible past the sudden shrill beeping that started up, and stopped again.

"Oh, you're on Earth all right, but there's no record of any Fentons who look anything like you, let alone 'Jasmine Fenton,'"

"What year is it?"

"2017."

Jazz tried to hide the faint disbelief from showing on her face, the forced neutral expression clearly not convincing Summer who raised her eyebrow.

"Try checking around 2014."

"Yeah, still no. Also, totally found your radioactive brother. He's about halfway across the country. I'm surprised people are still losing their shit over stuff like this."

Summer glanced over, pulling out a small tablet from her pocket and tapping at it a bit. For all that the house and random force fields seemed normal, the touch-screen device hammered home that yes, this was probably in the future.

And another universe.

"Shotgun!"

"What?"

"Alright, fine. Your brother is still in school anyway."

"You're taking me to him?" Jasmine tensed as the field turned yellow, flinching as it shrunk toward her. The bubble only lifted her from the ground under Rick's direction, swooping into the backseat of what looked like a _flying saucer_.

"Yeah, sure, why not? N- Not like I have anything bet-better to do."

Summer hopped into the passenger seat, pulling on the belt while Jazz awkwardly did the same in the back. Metal and glass clinked together, and she awkwardly nudged away the empty containers, trying to ignore the ripe smell of fermenting beverages. She watched him lift an already-open bottle in the cupholder, taking a long couple chugs from it before dropping it between the seats. Asking if he was currently intoxicated would be rather pointless, when the answer was this obvious.

"How often have you vomited back here?"

"A lot. Now shut up and l-let me drive."

"Ew."

Summer just laughed, completely ignoring the spectacle of the _flying saucer_ taking off, zooming across the landscape as she turned to eye up the other redhead again.

"Sooo… How'd you get through a portal, anyway? Did you steal one from Rick?"

Jazz just gave her a confused look.

"Uh, no? I just met him."

"Stumbled across an open one?"

"Not really."

She noticed the older man watching her in he rear-view mirror, poker face much better than her own.

"...My parents made the portal in their basement."

She almost didn't get the last word out as the saucer lurched in the air, stopping abruptly as Rick whirled around in his seat.

" _WHAT!?_ "

"Ow, what the fuck grandpa. Warn a girl."

" _WHAT DO YOU MEAN YO-YOUR PARENTS MADE A PORTAL?!"_

"I don't know, they made a portal!"

"What were their names?!"

"Jack and Maddie Fenton."

"Bullshit."

"I'm not lying."

She glared at him, and he flipped her off.

"Fucking bullshit. Shut the fuck up. We're finding your brother and yo-you're going to cut the - cut the - stop fucking around"

The saucer lurched forward again, and Jazz lifted her foot to avoid being splashed with a half-full bottle sloshing at her shoe. Summer was still watching, but… somehow the laser in her pocket didn't feel quite as comforting anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

It quickly became obvious that they were approaching her brother's location as the dry fields of corn started showing wide swaths of damage - fires flickering at the edges of craters, smoke billowing up out of them.

A green blast shot up into the sky, several more following as a dark streak followed a bright green one. Jazz leaned forward to watch, happy that Rick and Summer seemed to be fine slowing down to observe as well.

Her brother and the other ghost flew in quick, darting movements across the sky, trading blasts of energy in different shapes and colors. Shields flickered up occasionally, and just as the massive bat-bear ghost unleashed a barrage of slicing, whirling bands of energy, Danny ducked down and around.

Always impressed by his speed, Jazz whooped as the distinctive blue cone opened up, a furious roar tapering off as the Fenton Thermos did its job.

Jazz waved back to Danny's clearly confused salute, and watched his face light up when he recognized her.

Both ship and her brother descended to the earth, and he stayed a respectful distance back from the ship, despite the clear stars she could see in his eyes.

"Are you serious right now? A _flying saucer_?!"

Jazz laughed, relieved when the yellow bubble around her disintegrated, and the three of them climbed out.

"I know, that's what I was thinking. Apparently we're in the future."

"Dude, that's so cool. Does everyone have them? Can it go into space? Can I try to drive it?"

"No, Yes, and Hell no. Back off, spooky."

The grins fell from their faces as the older man leveled a whining gun at Danny's face, the device in his wrinkled hand blinking and beeping.

"Mister… Rick, sir, Thanks for finding Danny, you don't have to… he's not dangerous."

He lifted the device, showing a tiny picture of Danny, glowing different shades of green.

"He's a ghost."

"What, those are real?"

Rick gave Summer an exasperated eyeroll, and she looked up at the clouds, whistling to herself.

"it's not what you think!" Jazz interjected, waving her hands and trying to think of something.

"Obviously not 'spirits of dead people,' souls don't have any real power. They don't tend to stick around, either. Real ghosts are just creatures made of other creature's thoughts after you let it sit around soaking in ectoplasm long enough. They suck the life out of other creatures to grow stronger, until there's nothing alive around to munch on, and then they move on. The gre-great migrating extinction event."

"I've never killed anyone!"

Danny jumped when the blue laser charred near his foot, retreating a few scuffs with a worried look at Jazz..

"Lucky you, you got to copy off a human. Your memories aren't _Real_. they aren't _Yours_. This isn't your brother, Jasmine. It's a copy made of goo that's been Ca-Chameleoning it up in here, until humanity becomes boring."

She watched his face pale several shades, a sick look passing over him.

They made quick eye contact, and she could tell he was thinking of that disastrous year with the alternate-older-self.

"I promised I wouldn't." He managed to grind out, and Rick just dialed the gun until it started emitting a high-pitched whine.

"Promises smomishes. The only difference between you and the bear thing is that you've made an effort to be sneaky. Now hold still while this thing powers up enough. I'd hate for it to take more than one shot in front of your sister."

"Rick, Stop. He's my brother. I've known he's half ghost for years now. You can drop the gun, I know he won't hurt us."

Rick just laughed. "You can't be half ghost. That's like being half vampire, or half an idiot. You can be an idiot AND something else, but it's an all or nothing game."

He pointed the gun at Danny's writhing tail, dragging it up toward his face.

"L-let me guess. You decided with your new sentience that 'hey, what the hell, why not possess my memory's corpse?' Got a nice family out of the deal. Easy access to unlimited meals. Maybe give 'em a few scares to sweeten the pot when other pickings are slim."

Danny twitched a shoulder uncomfortably, deliberately refusing to look away. Jazz took a few more steps forward, almost beside Rick now.

"He's _my brother_."

"Same way a picture is _your brother_ , or a Mirror is _your brother._ Y-your real brother bit the dust a long time ago, and his reflection isn't even denying it. All his actual thoughts and feelings are gone. This is just an off-brand copy, and I'm pretty sure it's considered rude on most Earths to run around in a dead body."

His expression morphed to irritation when Jazz edged in front of the gun, blocking it with her hand to try to make the case.

"Seriously?"

"He's not dead. Danny, tell him you're not dead."

Rick gave a low chuckle, pushing Jazz's arm aside when Danny remained silent. The unspoken agreement felt like a great weight was being placed across her shoulders, a sinking feeling starting in her gut. She'd heard these words from her parents before, but from someone else, it seemed more _real_.

"I'm surprised you're not tr-trying to lie your head off. Your sister's freaking out, man. You _care_ don't you? You have _human emotions_ don't you? O-Or have you given up pretending?"

Danny gave a slight shake of his head. "I care." He murmured. "But... I don't think I should..." He glanced toward Jazz, then back to the gun.

"I think I've lied enough for one lifetime"

"...Danny?"

"So, Jazz-zie, it's u-up to you. Blow his head off and put your long-dead brother to rest? Or keep hanging out with a-ugh..a warped imprint of his mind running around in his slowly rotting corpse."

"So…" Jazz hesitated, swallowing. She heard Summer sigh behind them, shuffling her feet with a quietly whispered _'awkwaaard'_

"...Is this why you never told mom and dad?"

Her brother lifted his shoulder in another tiny shrug, looking more at the ground than at the gun, clearly waiting for the hammer to fall.

"...Then you're really… dead."

Danny didn't respond.

Silence was damning.

"Are you going to shoot him, or shall I? it's almost juiced up."

Jazz inhaled slowly, stepping forward.

"He- He….. was _my_ brother."

She saw the little wince, but even as she accepted the electric blue gun, leveling it at his chest, Danny didn't try to run. He looked up at her only once, the green of his eyes shining through translucent white hair, before looking back down to the ground.

She took a tiny step forward, the sparking tip of the gun making a few fine hairs rise up on the top of his head.

"Careful." The scientist behind her muttered. She heard him pull out a second weapon, and tried to swallow enough to speak. She hoped that he'd _pay attention_. .

"I've known… since the Spectra thing."

Green eyes flashed back up toward her, pure confusion glowing. They were the same words, _please remember._

"I didn't want to to tell you until you wanted to tell me."

The confusion lasted a few moments, before a memory clicked into place, and his eyes widened. The heart-to-heart they had on the school steps, years ago. The way she'd gone out of her way to keep him safe from their parents, even while she already thought he was a true ghost, and not half.

 _It's our secret, now_.

It took less than a blink for his hand to dart out, grabbing her wrist and pulling her forward. His power washed over her in a splash of icy breath, and a slash of green opened up the air in a ragged portal beside them.

Jazz felt heat snap past her cheek, the high-pitched zap of a discharging gun just barely missing them both before they fell into another portal to who-knew-where.

She held onto the gun, her free hand reaching out to grab onto his thin wrist in return, enduring the whirling colors of an unstable portal dragging them to another place.

"God DAMN it!" Rick shoved his gun back into his pocket, yanking out the portal gun and twisting the knob furiously.

"Get in the ship, Summer. We can't be sure where they're headed, but we-we've gotta stop 'em."

"What's the big deal?" She still hopped back into the passenger seat, buckling in. "She made her choice, creepy as it was.."

"Her _Choice_ was supposed to be 'Blow his head off' but they cle-cl- obviously have more trust in their relationship than I thought. Think, Summer. What do ghosts feed off of?"

"Uh, fear, I guess?" She held onto the armrests as the ship darted forward.

"Close, real close. Emotions in general. Fear's just tasty shit. Like candy. A ghost gets more powerful the more emotions it feeds on, and now we've got a ghost stuck in a human body. It can do whatever it wants in there, Summer. It can make that body feel as much fear as it wants, for as long as it wants." He turned when he heard her mutter 'yikes' under her breath.

"You have no idea, Summer. This one can make its own _Portals_. It could devour everyone and anything, in every universe, if it decided it wanted to. Just suck up everything like the world's nastiest hoover."

Rick reached out the window, shooting the portal and rolling the window up just as his ship zipped through it. They emerged just outside the driveway a moment later, swooping into the tight garage.

"So why hasn't it done that already?"

"Because Ghosts tend to be aggressive and hungry, but I never said they were _smart_. Either way, they're not supposed to be able to leave their own warped little part of reality unless someone dropped a real big dookie on the universe's fan. I'm betting the wonder siblings are a good place to start"

"Can you even track someone across universes?" The two of them unbuckled, and Rick rushed to his work station.

"Normally? No. But those kids sh-shed radiation like an antivaxxer's kids shed measles, so I should be able to whip something up." He yanked down on a lever, and several panels opened up, blinking and beeping.

"I hope you're fond of beige Jumpsuits, Grandpa."

"What the fuck? No. I'm not."

Summer ignored him, blithely continuing.

"Because we're about to become Ghost Busters!"

"Oh. The remake was shitty."

"Yeah, well, I enjoyed it."

"You have shitty taste."

"GHOST BUSTERS!"


	3. Chapter 3

When the portal spat them out again, Danny stumbled to his knees, retching his guts onto the alien planet. Lime green spattered the ground, tasting awfully like he'd been chewing on batteries, with a sharp burn across his tongue to back it up.

"I don't know how Wulf does this all the time." He wheezed, taking a few serrated breaths, hands tightly clasped to his knees.  
He felt her warm hand rubbing between his shoulder blades in comfort, and hung his head. Guilt gnawed angrily at the inside of his sternum.  
"I'm... sorry I didn't tell you earlier."

He heard her lean over behind him, hand remaining on his back as her feet scuffed around the corner of his vision, carefully avoiding the mess. She cleared her throat before speaking.  
"How long did you really know, that you're...?"

Danny closed his eyes, letting the throbbing pain in his skull run its course. He swallowed, winced, then spat the last bit of bile while Spectra's words bitterly echoed in his head. (what are you? A ghost pretending to be human, or a creepy little boy, with creepy little powers.) His fingertips dug into the curve under his knees.  
He felt her hand still, then move up to pat the top of his head. He huffed.

"Tucker and Sam are great about testing my abilities and measuring everything." It was the truth, but… perhaps not the full answer to her question.. "I… after the accident, nothing really registered as human anymore. I think… I only really do things like eat and breathe out of habit. Because I think I have to, or I forget that I don't."  
He huffed a painful laugh, struggled to his feet, and heard her do the same, kicking some pale blue dust over the glowing green fluid. When he looked around, pink atmosphere contrasted sharply with the blue earth under their feet, vivid orange and purple plants clawing and twisting toward the sky like zombie ballerinas frozen in mid-twirl across a barren desert.

"Is it just me, or did Lisa Frank paint an entire planet?" He tried to joke to hide the prickling fear crawling up the back of his neck. This place was...entirely ailen to him. The Ghost Zone had strange plants and creatures, but the color scheme was always purple and green. It had a certain miasma - a sheen to it that this place lacked, and it put him on edge.

Jazz forced a chuckle, pulling out her head band to rake her fingers through the orange strands.  
"It's not just you."  
"Oh, well, that's good to know."

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, brushing off his knees instead of going intangible. She squinted at the mountains in the near distance, hand up over her eye to block out the strangely red glinting sun.  
"There's a city, not terribly far away" Jazz finally announced, ducking down again to slide her hair band on. She snugged her hair in place and offered him a small smile.  
"Wanna check it out while you recover?"

He nodded, standing up and catching up with a little jog when she started walking toward it without him. Danny ducked his head, scratching the back of his scalp.  
"Hey- do you- um… he was right about… the emotions, thing."  
Jazz shrugged, slinging her arm over his shoulders and pulling them together to stumble toward their destination.  
"I figured. You've never made people feel miserable, not like Spectra does, so I'm not worried about it."  
"Oh."  
"Also, you're a terrible liar. You wear your heart on your face. It's hard to be mad at you when you look like you're about to cry"  
"I do not!" He puffed up indignantly, jabbing a finger into her laughed for real this time, batting it away and reaching up to ruffle his mess of white hair.  
"Suuuure you don't, Mr 'It's a lie I'm not a ghost"

Danny grumbled, following his urge and transforming back to his human form. Gravity sucked his feet a bit harder, and the dry wind seemed more real as it whipped dust up around them. He could still feel his connection to the ghost zone thrumming in his chest - a solid little part that was more him than the flesh he wore. A little core made of ice and staticky screams.  
Jazz hugged him a bit closer.  
It almost made him feel human again.  
"Do you want to talk...about this whole thing?"

Danny shoved his hands into his jean pockets at her offer, looking at the ground as their shoes tossed up blue dust with every step.  
"I dunno, man. Probably should, but... " He glanced up through his bangs. "Could the details wait till we get home?"  
Jazz just nodded, and relief washed over him like a physical thing.

It took over an hour before the two of them reached the outskirts of the alien city, heads swiveling around as swaying yellow architecture twisted up in coral branches and sweeping canopies of delicate tunnels. Woven shades of orange and red criss-crossed the spaces in precarious bridges, letting cow-sized spiderlike creatures scuttle urgently across.  
Danny would be a lot more alarmed had he not been so familiar with the strange anatomy of ghosts, their many-eyed and many-mouthed forms no longer rattling him.  
Jazz, however, seemed intent on gluing herself to his side, spine stiffening any time one of the spiderings moved too close.  
A few of the doorways were on the ground, instead of halfway up one of the treelike buildings, dozens of pale green eyes watching them pass while curious whispers followed them. Danny took a breath and forged ahead, waving at a spider creature that appeared to make eye contact, calling out a greeting.  
It stopped, the little legs around its mouthparts twitching as one of its forelegs curled up to gesture to itself in mild confusion.  
"Yes, hello. Nice to meet you. Sorry, we're a bit lost. Do you know where we are?"

The spider hesitated, a ripple sliding across its furry yellow back, mandibles shifting uncertainly. It hissed, chirped, and made this low warbling growl that seemed to come more from its back than its mouth.  
"Er- Sorry, I didn't understand that."  
It tapped its legs, turning in a circle to face one of the spiders who had paused, chattering quietly. The other one ducked slightly, tilting its orange-streaked body to whisper back.  
The first one ruffled its fur up, then started walking away.  
It turned slightly, waiting for them when Danny and Jazz didn't immediately follow.  
"Oh! Thank you."  
Danny quickly started following it around the winding roads, Jazz tight behind him and clearly not happy to be here.  
"How do we know it's not going to eat us?"  
"Because everyone had plenty of chances already, and they're treating us more like stray cats than prey."

Jazz made an unhappy noise, fingering the gun she'd stowed in her jacket pocket.  
"Don't threaten them unless they threaten us first."  
"I know that." She frowned at him, but Danny was too distracted by the weirdly inorganic building that had come into view.  
It wasn't humanish, since it had way more sides and angles than any human structure would normally have, but it was markedly different from the brightly colored twisting buildings that surrounded it. Made of plain blue-grey stone and gleaming silver metal, with glass-ish doors and a several handles at different heights.  
The spider poked a circle near the center of one of the doors, and it slid open with a soft hiss.

"Thank you again!"  
Danny waved, bowing a little and scampering through the door.  
Jazz hesitated, looking at the fuzzy spider, curling mandibles at eye height and still freaking her out. She bobbed her head a little.  
"Thank you."  
It chirped wordlessly and tilted its body, before scuttling around and up the side of the building.  
She caught a glimpse of white fangs and a wide pink hole of a mouth, a horrified shiver sliding down her spine.  
Jazz caught up with Danny easily enough, catching the tail end of what sounded like an inquiry about earth. The alien behind the counter swiped and poked at a shimmering holographic panel, hemming and hawing and muttering robotic English through the glowing necklace fit high on its throat. Translation collar?

She noticed a small flashing light in the corner of its desk, and the ripple of tension that seemed to spread down the other desks as corresponding lights started silently blinking. It took a moment, but dread sputtered to life when she realized it was probably some sort of silent alarm.  
"Danny." She whispered, tapping the back of her knuckle on his side.  
"-and I just mean we would appreciate any information you could give us- what?"  
"We should go somewhere else."  
Danny turned toward her, head tilted slightly. Blue eyes widened as he spotted something over her shoulder, and Jazz didn't hesitate to drop to her knees when he shoved her down.

Glass shattered  
Heat flashed overhead, and the otherworldly shine of his ecto shield lit up the stone room.  
Jazz shoved her hands into her pockets, adrenaline twisting into protective fury as her fingers snatched up the weapons. As fast as she drew them, brandishing her laser lipstick and the stolen gun, Danny had already transformed, fists lighting up.


End file.
